Dedf1sh
by Darkford
Summary: Welcome to the Deepsea Metrrr23sd m**&N. Accessing C:/Users/7154. Loading file…
1. Welcom34Jn&

_C:/Users/7154_

 _Loading file…_

Deep in the confines of the Deepsea Metro, far deeper than any sane Octarian would go, &7fs}}df opened her eyes and paused. Long, poison-green fingers, malformed at the ends, reached out hesitantly for the disks in front of her, and *u9)dm began to follow the beat which had led her mind into a stupor.

"Wh&A-" She gulped. Shaking off the confusion, she reached up and grabbed the dark red shades from her face. Shaking out her two tentacles, she threw the glasses to the ground and looked around.

The room was white on all sides, and aside from a small bed, a flap (presumably for food), and a set of turnstables at which she stood, there was nothing in it. The music coming out of the machine was discordant and unsettling, and so, with little else to occupy her mind with, she returned to remixing.

The sounds were less grating once she set to work, each movement removing the horrid screeches coming from the machine and returning it to a halfway pleasant melody, if a bit robotic and repetitive. Once she had the pattern down, *dnT^%l. thought carefully about her situation.

 _What happened last?_

She winced as she hit a wrong note and quickly returned to sliding strange, unfamiliar fingers along the turnstable. She felt… different.

 _Taller_. _Weaker._

Her face had gone lean, and layed over her was a sliding black tee-shirt, held on her frame by a few strings. On one wrist, an armband pulsed, red sparks glowing.

 _What happened to me?_

"Bzzt!" A voice cried, blaring in her ears and throwing her off her groove. Growling, she searched frantically for the source of the noise. "Sleep time, sleep time, Human 1!"

 _Human?_

But that couldn't be right. SHe wasn*8nt the r&fnght colour^63n

* * *

Her eyes opened again.

The blaring voice was chattering away to itself, in a gibberish language ^78jn,mm didn't understand. It was harsh, and dry, and entirely unfamiliar. Forcing herself to ignore the grating noise, she hurried to the turnstables again and began to investigate.

There was nothing in the box except machinery, and stray marks of a greenish ink which glistened in the light. It had a strange consistency, too, almost li&b T^*7hnpa*8. *no&nk} rose and found herself looking up, out through a window which provided the only light.

There was no sky. A strange, almost _flat_ area existed above her, a dark red-black in colour despite the light it was emitting. It flickered - changed - and a deep-seated dread began to fill her stomach. Up near the window, a small object - rubbery, _familiar_ , sat, the image of an octoling staring back at her.

 _Oh my ink. Oh my ink ohmy ink ohm*nuh432-:}]nd_

* * *

 _There is an ink-filled void._

 _All around her, Octolings float, naked yet fully grown. It's hard to see more than a few feet in front of her, yet light permeates every corner of her vision._

" _Restarting simulation," a voice - light, male, something else - says. "3..2..1…"_

* * *

&*9nls' eyes open again, and she groans from her place on the floor, her fingers gently caressing her pounding head. Despite the pain, she's almost thankful she endured, for what she knows now.

She stares up at the Octoling again, at the glitching sky above her, and decides she has to leave as soon as she can.

Hopping up onto the turnstable, she grabs the small object - so strange, so _familiar_ \- in her hands and stuffs it in the pocket of her pants, which are somewhat baggy and only slightly lighter in colour than her shirt.

Glancing around, and listening carefully to the strange, uncomfortable voice, she eyes the food flap.

Old instincts flare, and she's in her Octopus form before she can think. Creeping forward, she hears a break in the gibberish.

"Hey, hey, hey," the voice calls. "Where are you going? I thought you liked it here. Don't you? It's not nice out there, human 1. Come back."

She stoutly refuses to listen and hops through the chute. After all, if the world can glitch, then it isn't real anyway. And if it isn't real, she won't feel pain…

She feels her muscles contracting against her will. Sheer energy surrounds her, &*(dhgbn her brain huRTS80N&&]]


	2. To Deepsea MetroooH87d8hfn

The sky is gone.

Blinking her eyes open once again, she feels her eyes crusting over from the strange… sleep?...

Shaking out her tentacles, F*D(n0)+ breathed deeply and rose to her feet. She was standing in what appeared to be a metro station, the far ends blocked by the long, deep-cut trenches designed for trains. Sitting alone in the center of the station was a phone booth, which rang incessantly.

"He)}0?" She murmurs into the receiver. She winces at her own discordant voice, but the machine seems not to notice.

"Congratulations!" A sudden burst of generated clapping emits from the machine. "#7154, you've been chosen to make the journey to the promised land!"

"Prom11s3D… 1 nd?" she manages to say.

"Yes, that's right, the Promised Land!" More clapping. "Just take this card and this CQ-80 and scurry right along onto that there train!" A horn sounded in the distance. "Go go go, no time like now!"

*(dnl}./ narrowed her eyes. Choosing to remain silent - if only so she didn't have to hear her own voice - she turned to the train.

The train looked… simple. Graffiti was the only distinguishing mark on its' plain grey sides, and the doors - regular glass - opened way to a standard and unmaintained interior. Carefully stepping on, she barely hopped in before the train began to move, the rattling of the wheels and a hiss of steam alerting her to the train's movement.

The train was sparsely populated by strange, jelly creatures, their heads stretched an wobbly. They barely seemed to notice her at all, absorbed in sleep or chatting to each other in warbling voices too soft to hear.

 _Are they real?_

She shook off her thoughts before they moved too far - hard as it was to drop the thought - and instead walked slowly down the train. The strange jellyfish were dotted around the train, and up near the front, a blue, glowing sea cucumber stood.

After a pause, it spoke. "You're aware."

She nodded.

"Yet you were remixed." It gestures awkwardly to her pale green colouration, her strange height, her fingers.

She nods again.

The sea cucumber appears to perk up. "I am C.Q. Cumber, the conductor of this train. I will take you anywhere in this underground. Please be aware that I cannot travel through glitched areas."

"wH00 rr y0u?" She quickly slammed a hand over her mouth, panic rising. CQ crept closer and patted her foot with one extended arm.

"Relax," he advised. "Take a moment - the train isn't going anywhere without you. I presume you got a CQ Card and CQ-80?"

She held out the pair of objects - one a blue card, the other a blocky, white machine with a joystick. "Very good. You can use those on this train to control where it goes. Please be aware that it will refuse to take you to glitched locations and inaccessible areas." His small conductor's hat almost slid off, but he shoved it back up. "I'm presuming you have a goal in mind. Whatever it is, please be careful. This place is dangerous."

Nodding sedately, *nn&Seb walked back down the train. Outside the window, dark walls flashed by, neon signs flashing past every now and then. The plain lights in the train were soothingly constant and dim, casting shadows on the strange inhabitants of the train.

CQ edged forward. "The train is part of this System," he commented, keeping step with *8nwe. "The passengers change with each subject who passes through; think of them as… thoughts, memories, which were once yours. They are real, never doubt that; they are simply less real than you." He pulsed with a cyan glow. "However, they can't help you. I suggest you use your CQ-80. It will get you somewhere."

Nodding, she pulled out the machine and pushed on the joystick. Immediately, a flickering hologram of an underground station appeared, illuminating the train. Only a handful of the stations were available; the rest flickered and greyed out, the background colour mixing in mind-bending geometric shapes. Flicking around, she picked one which appeared relatively harmless.

The train clacked loudly, and there was a moment of weightlessness.

"Now approaching Undercover station," CQ announced. "Please don't leave anything behind."

* * *

CQ left the train with * }}nde3, into an environment both familiar and unfamiliar. A glass cube encapsulated their exit, and a few meters away, a train exit blocked off the pair from a dreary and dark set of buildings, which stretched up into a flat sky. Upon closer inspection, it was clear it was just a set of panels, cleverly curved to simulate the appearance of night-time outside. O03.}je scrunched up her nose in confusion, peering at the skyline suspiciously.

"At the end of this area you will find some of your stored memories," CQ said, staring detachedly at the area. "Please do not forget your umbrella. You'll need it; test subjects always have what they need at the equipper."

Raising an eyebrow, she stepped onto the platform. With a quiet pop, a black umbrella fell into her hands.

"This area is significant to you," CQ continued. "To you and you alone. I can't say for sure what you'll find here."

Nodding, she held her CQ card against the panel next to the doors and waited for it to release, pushing through into the undergrowth.

"...take care out there," CQ commented to the empty space.


	3. Ink weap0Nzgr:m4

*(ns#/be opened the umbrella and held it over her head as she stepped cautiously through the narrow alleyways. Paths of ink in the same faded blue of her tentacles dotted the landscape. The eerie quiet was all-encompassing, but she didn't dare make a noise.

 _Who knows what could hear…_

The growing sound of machinery ahead made her hesitate, holding the umbrella in front of her defensively. It was difficult to see in the all-encompassing darkness, which melted into the scenery like a black fog. Folding against a garbage can, she peered out into the alley ahead.

A strange green… tentacle, mounted on a machine, sat in the center of the alleyway, spewing green ink - thankfully not the disturbing goop - through a nozzle on the front. It had strange, buggy eyes, and a wide, unmoving mouth. Gulping, she shuffled back behind the garbage can and took a deep breath.

There was something _wrong_ with that creature. But she had to get past it to continue.

As she rose, the creature - _thing_ \- turned to look at her. With a burst of smoke and a chugging noise, it began shooting at her.

Diving back behind the garbage can, she covered her ears as ink slammed into the can with a paced clang. Splatters of green ink whizzed past, drops hissing as they hit her leg.

Growling in pain, *9sndf4$ reopened her umbrella and held it in front of her. Peering over the top at her opponent, she let out an angry call and ran headlong towards her enemy. Shutting her eyes tightly, she stabbed forward, pushing through the resistance the tip of her umbrella met.

Green ink splashed everywhere. Reverting to Octopus form on instinct, she leaped back and retreated into a small puddle of ink near her hiding place. Inhaling deeply and surrounding herself in the ink, she forced herself to calm down.

When she rose again, she immediately threw the umbrella out in front of her as a shield. Breathing raggedly, she slowly moved forward, one eye constantly on the puddles of green ink left behind. The brightly glowing ink was hard to miss in the darkness of the alleyway, but nerves couldn't help but murmur just how easy it would be for something to sneak up on her.

Up ahead, rising from a steep incline in the pavement, sat a pedestal. A strange, translucent cube stood on top of it, and cautiously, *SD9fn/ began her approach.

A sudden screech interrupted her. She flared her umbrella in front of her and peeked over the edge.

It warbled, wavered, and died out, leaving behind a glob of ink which coalesced in midair into something much larger than the creature before. It stood on two unnaturally thin, malformed legs. Long, misshapen tentacles curled out from its' body, upon which was an unnaturally large mouth. Green globs of goo dripped from its' body and a deeply malevolent breathing began to echo through the alley.

Sd8f9n:,,'s eyes widened as it began to regurgitate something.

A green bar of- _something_ , twice her weight and height, was projected out of the monstrosity's gaping mouth. Whipping her umbrella forward and crouching, she screwed her eyes shut as the large bar slammed into her flimsy shield, bouncing off halfheartedly and toppling off to the side. Almost immediately, the choking noise of the creature starting up the attack again, forcing her to act.

Bounding off to the side, she held out her umbrella once again and waited for it to go by. Briefly glancing between the ugly entity and the steep decline behind her, she gritted her teeth and rammed forward, umbrella held out in front of her defensively. Green bars slammed off her shield as she approached the immobile monster, buckling her arms, but she held firm.

"G$$A&A/*H!" She screamed, pulling the umbrella shut and thrusting forward. The sharp tip stabbed clean through the creature, and with an agonized scream, it bubbled and exploded.

&S(dfgg collapsed, panting hard, body shaking from the wave of pain the wash of ink had brought. Laying on the ground in front of her, a golden key glinted, and she snatched it up aggressively.

Using the key and Umbrella to prop herself up, she stumbled over to the pedestal, peering through the ink dripping down her face at the object within. Sat next to a small, rubbery, _familiar_ thing was a medium-sized object around the size of a backpack. It had a long black strap of soft leather, and the object itself was a metal contraption with a myriad of buttons and a pair of discs, all in the faded blue-red of her standard ink.

She jammed the key into the slot, and the vault shimmered before winking out of existence. Reaching forward, she slung the contraption over her shoulder and grabbed the strange object, shaped like a beach ball.

Breathing out, sdf79n%& stepped back to returN7*DFsn;/{23*jel


	4. Osss&eaN Wv3sz

_A tall, elegant Octoling brushes her long, sinuous tentacles out of her face, spreading her gaze evenly across the group. "You are among the last third of us to travel into the vault," she declared. "I will miss all of you, as brief our acquaintance has been. I wish you luck in the unknown future."_

 _The waves splash outside, and she turns her head to the beach, where her little sister plays in the sand, the water lapping ever closer._

* * *

"Welcome back, #7154," CQ said from his place next to her head. "When you did not return, I feared the worst and came to check. I must advise you try not to knock yourself out; it isn't safe to be defenseless here."

She nodded sedately.

"I see you got yourself a new weapon," CQ gestured to the object slung around her shoulder and digging into her back. "Dare I ask if you know how to use it?"

FSd/89*n blushed.

"I'll take that as no, then," he sighed. "Follow me; the train must leave soon."

Rising to her feet, she adjusted the new weapon, assuring her grip as she follows after the sea cucumber. In the eerie silence, all she can hear is the tap of her feet against the platform as she returns to the train. One hand fiddled with the rubbery beach ball, her ragged fingers sliding smoothly over the edges.

"Oh - congratulations, you've found a mem cake," CQ commented, lighting up. "I suspect you remembered something?"

*(dsf$,w nodded, frowning. She opened her mouth to speak, but soon thought better of it, instead simply shaking her head sadly.

"I understand," he replied sympathetically. "Treasure that mem cake. It's not the sort of thing you'd want to lose."

Sd*33n gripped the mem cake tighter and hurried to hop onto the train before it left.

* * *

The rumbling of the train soothed her nerves enough to think. Around her, the wobbly creatures - apparently her thoughts and feelings given form - wandered about, moving past her like she wasn't even there.

 _What was that memory?_

Glaring at her feet, she stuffed the mem cake into her pocket and wandered up to the front of the train, pulling the new weapon down from her shoulder.

 _And what's with this thing?_

CQ turned to meet her. "Ah, your new weapon," he mused. "I had wondered if you would return with it. Now that it's here, I expect you'll be able to take it anywhere." He paused, watching as Sd&23n# held it up to the light, admiring the buttons and doodads which were dotted all over it. "Do you recognize it?"

She shrugged, slumping into a seat nearby and laying it on her lap. With one hesitant finger she poked one of the keys, lighting up the weapon and shooting a small splotch of ink out across from her.

"Please refrain from using it on the train," CQ said flatly. SD&3n9 laughed nervously and quickly slung it over her back again. "I suppose you need to practice with it, though. And perhaps a name - we cannot call it 'the weapon' forever. Far too confusing."

Frowning, she tapped the weapon's side, producing a hard, metallic sound.

"Maybe your CQ-80 can help?" CQ hinted unsubtly, amusement evident in his voice.

Huffing, she reached into her pocket and grabbed her CQ-80, quickly bringing up the screen again. After only a minute's thought, she selected a station which appeared relatively straightforward in its' requirements.

"Now travelling to Whack'em Station," CQ turned away. "We'll get there in a few minutes. Please don't leave your weapon behind."

* * *

Whack'em Station stood beneath a pale blue sky, lined with sand and docks. Water swayed below, and S*en33/L felt a nervous familiarity with it as she stared out from the glass booth before the station. Up above, the sky remained unnaturally stationary.

"In this station, you will have to destroy all enemy Octarians before you can proceed," CQ explained, edging up along a wall. "You will have to use your new weapon to attack. Please note that the entities within this station will not hesitate to kill you."

She gulped. Adjusting her grip on her weapon, she played an experimental note. A glob of ink blasted out and popped against a dummy sitting not far away, coating it in faded blue.

Reaching into the pocket of her pants, she took her CQ Card and slid it across the slot, hurrying into the station. It was a mere heartbeat before she had to duck hastily behind a balloon-like wall to protect herself from the ink which was shot past.

Aiming her new weapon, E&w3n: took aim and played a note, slamming a splotch of ink into the enemy's back. Instead of hurting it, she just seemed to annoy it; with a warbled cry, the Octarian turned around and shot a volley of ink to join the previous one.

Leaping out of the way, she pressed a button again, another near-harmless spot of ink hitting the Octarian in the cheek.

The game continued rather unerringly in the Octarian's favour. For each tiny hit she landed, she had to shoot three more, and in the time it took to land one, the Octarian had already recovered from the previous shot.

Growling in frustration, she slammed her palm into the weapon, hitting five different dissonant notes at once. A large, circular blast of ink released, and travelled head-first into the enemy, bursting on contact and coating it in ink, much to the Octarian's hissed upset.

Blinking, she pressed another set of buttons, and another large blast obliterated the struggling creature before it could complain much more.

"y3S!" She slammed a foot down in the ink left behind and yipped in malevolent joy.

Her exuberance was overheard by the enemies ahead, and she turned a vicious grin towards her enemies, turning her weapon towards them and hovering fingers over the keys as if about to play a song. Her talented fingers dragged a powerful, high-speed tune from the weapon and blasted her enemies to pieces, coating the station in glistening, electric-blue ink.

S*en:)ed} grinned.


	5. Runn1N6 0Uu& 0t TTT1Nme(3n

*93Lde) woke up, shook out her tentacles, and stretched, letting out a yawn which was closer to an otter's underwater chirp. Rubbing her eyes, she stared blankly at her strange, wrinkled fingers for a moment before remembering where she was.

Reaching blindly for her weapon, which now had ' _Keyblaster'_ inscribed along the side in a messy scrawl, she slung it over her shoulder and hopped to her feet, shaking away the last vestiges of exhaustion from the night before. Wandering through the train, she let one hand gently pat the small collection of mem cakes in her pocket.

Out at the front of the train, CQ rested near the center of the floor, watching idly as she slumped into a seat. The front of the train had few 'passengers'; a pair of long-necked jellyfish slumbered in the seat across from her, and up near the front, a jellyfish with at least nine heads made bell-like sounds in sync with the train's rumbling. Pushing down the joystick on her CQ-80, Se83&n/e flicked dispassionately between the different stations on offer.

Once she had gotten her Keyblaster, the stations had become significantly easier to dig through. Her weapon had been a constant companion since, and she shuddered to think of working without it. But now that she could get through more, it was becoming increasingly obvious that the number of stations untouched by the glitch were dwindling.

Chancing a glance out the window, E8#mm( shuddered at the sight of darkened and rapidly flashing stations in the distance. It was unnerving to watch; the glitch would change a place, irrevocably, and it was hard to look at without experiencing a moment of pure, primal fear.

Breathing out a slow, steadying sigh, she grumbled at the lack of stations she could visit and flicked aimlessly.

Her cursor waggled between stations, sometimes back on ones she'd finished before the glitch had spread to them. Even the station where she had figured out her Keyblaster, W*#n' 3n-

 _NO, no, no, don't think about it, don't think about it_ …

Forcing herself to calm down, she closed her eyes and tried again. Moving her cursor along the edges of the glitch, where the screen itself was darkened or flashing in reds, blacks and whites, she finally hit something.

While part of the station's background was currently unlit, the dot of the station itself was lit up.

Before she could select it, CQ spoke up. "That station is at high risk," he stated urgently. "It is not half as safe as the others."

"wHa7 0Th3rz?" She demanded before she could stop herself, gesturing harshly to the image.

"...fair enough," CQ dipped his head. "Now headed to 8Ne&:l station."

* * *

The sky flickered, but attempted valiantly to persist as a dark green-black. Decorated like a suburban sprawl, palm trees wavered in an unseen wind, and hard concrete stretched out in dips and curves which layered the countryside like a coat of paint. Splatters of bright pink ink glittered under the false light of the station.

"Are you sure you wish to-?" CQ began to ask. At &*(3nll's flat look, he tapered off. "Alright. In this station, you must avoid being seen. Please avoid detection at all costs."

(23n:?o nodded, adjusting her grip on her Keyblaster. Tapping her CQ card on the station's gate and pushing past, she immediately sent out a loud volley of shots and sank into the ink.

* * *

&93nPe# watched cautiously as an Octosniper's gaze wavered back and forth, searching for her location. Inching forward carefully, she idly entertained the notion of splatting the sniper just so it couldn't hurt her later, but quickly discarded the idea. Waiting for it to turn it's back, she slammed out a salvo of notes and leaped for the wide, inky path she'd left for herself, slipping into her Octopus form and into the ink just moments before the Octosniper turned back to the noise.

Letting out a breath of relief, she swam slowly up to the edge of her path and leaped behind a barrier. Inking her surroundings with a short, mixed tune, she slid to her knees, ready to duck under in a heartbeat, and peeked out from behind her defenses.

The area was mostly quiet, clean of ink save for a splatter or two of the glittering pink. She almost marked it safe when she noticed a twitch of movement not far off.

Huddling under a nearby palm tree, a plated, metallic shell shifted. Immediately re-aiming her weapon, S8ne)0l hissed under her breath and squeezed her back against the barrier.

It shifted again, and a wavering voice spoke. "Wh-who's there?"

If it hadn't noticed her yet, it certainly had now. Slamming out an aggressive set of shots, she dove into the ink left behind and approached. The shell whipped around to reveal the face of an isopod, multiple arms curling in around his stomach and digging into his sweater. His eyes darted back and forth under his shades, trying to find where she was.

"Hey! S-show yourself!" he demanded. He took a step back, suddenly noticing the ink. "Where are you?!"

After a moment, *9en:p) rose from the ink, holding her weapon out defensively in front of her and aiming dead-center for the Isopod's face. He let out a gasp and stepped back again, and for a tense moment, the two simply stared at each other.

"Who… who are you?" He asked after a moment, still appearing ready to curl into a ball the moment she started shooting.

She opened her mouth to speak, but thought better of it. Instead, she carefully held her weapon to one side, unwilling to disarm herself, and stepped forward, waving politely with her free hand.

The Isopod waved back. "Um, hello?"

Glancing around to make sure no Octarians would surprise her, she sat down. Pointing to the isopod, she tilted her head inquiringly.

"...I don't understand," he admitted after a spot of silence, still quaking. She put a hand to her forehead to massage a headache which was quickly growing.

 _I have a feeling this is going take a while..._


End file.
